3 Walter
Gieseking(photo ; Fayer, Wien)* Walter Gieseking(5th Nov. 1895~26th Oct. 1956)
[ I want to listen the beautiful sound from my piano ]
3 Walter
Gieseking(photo ; Fayer, Wien)
Though EMI is without
doubt the representative record company from the 1900s to 1960s,
sometimes I am angry when EMI's piano recordings, especially in
1950s. So bad sounds with so great pianists! I read an
article that an ex-EMI staff confessed in a book, "Most of
the EMI's recordings were done by the old machines used from 78s
era in 1950s. Therefore, in the 1950s, the recording quality of EMI was
something to be desired."
(something... or much?)
Considering this, naturally, EMI's piano recordings
are not good compared to the recording year(tone color of piano
is difficult to catch, really!). Only in my personal opinion,
even the piano recordings in 1930s by EMI are generally better
than in 1950s, only judging from piano tone (of course, if
neglecting the surface noises). Due to such an old machines, it
should perhaps be Walter Gieseking's recordings that tend to be
most undervalued. His 'fantastic
tone like crystals' does not
exist in most of his EMI records.
Walter Gieseking was born
at Lyon, France. However, both of his parents are German, and his
nationality also Germany. At young age his lesson was given to
him by mother. Formal lesson was began after moving Hannover
where was mother's homeland. At the municipal conservatory, he
was tutored by Karl Leimer, who was very famous for his
systematic pedagogy. Even before Hannover times, he was said to
play Schumann's Fantasy publicly, but the beginning of the formal
lesson at 16-year-old is more or less late compared to other
famous pianists. However, only five years later he debuted at
Hannover by Liszt's Concerto No.1 and toured Europe after WWI.
His first roll recording was in 1922 and first American trip
begun on 22nd Feb. 1922 gave him international fame. Paris debut
was on 1928. Especially his performances of the French
impressionists became famous soon, and even the criticizers
against him acclaimed his Debussy and Ravel unanimously.
Peoples want to know why he did not exile from
Nazi regime. Though he was at a distance from voluntary Nazi
claim, he was banned at podium to early 1948 and had to cancel
the American tour at 1949 season because of the demonstration of
the American veterans. He was able to tour USA only in 1953, and
on the spring of 1956 toured again for two month. Most of the
critics were for him in this last American tour.
Because his ability of memorizing piano score
was incredibily great, his concert schedule was such a busy one
that he should move from here to there always. It was natural
that he should have himself enrolled to traffic accident two
times. The first seemed to be not serious, but the later one in
1955 was so big that he lost his wife on the spot and that he was
misreported to be killed by a German paper. They said he would
not be able to play again, but luckily he recovered perfectly to
the next year and was able to tour America again at spring.
However, (due to the aftereffects of such a busy schedule?) on
October in a session of Beethoven's complete sonatas in EMI's
no.3 studio at Abbey Road, he fell by severe stomachache. Though
emergently operated, he passed away on 26th October. The cause of
death was acute pancreatitis(this disease occurs when the enzimes
of pancreas digest pancreas itself. It is far more danger than we
can imagine. Several thousands die of this a year in USA). His
last session was held on 17~22nd October, in which 10 Beethoven's
sonatas and Chopin's Barcarolle and Berceuse were
recorded.
If you'd like to know how
Gieseking thought about music, Modernes Klavierspiel(Modern piano playing)
should be the best window. It was
written by him and his teacher Karl Leimer, of which preface was
written by Gieseking. He said "I am unconditionally
loyal to the method of Leimer, though twelve years have passed
since I learned." The contents of this book can be
considered as his route of learning.
Leimer stresses 'intense training of ear' in
this book, which includes the training of listening the playing
of one's own - breeding the ability of the objective decision of
rhythm, tone color, and tempi(and etc.) of his own
performances. Exquisite and through nuances were one of his
characteristic factor, which was based on his trained ear. Leimer
said in this book "Gieseking's Debussy and Ravel are
unanimously acclaimed as the world-best by critics all over the
world, which results
from the skillful mastering of all kinds of touch and nuances".
Moreover,
it is mentioned to memorize score by concentration and to expand
the repertoire, which Gieseking's memorizing ability and vast
repertoire result from. Bartok and
Heinrich Neuhaus (teacher of Sviatoslav
Richter and Emil Gilels) are
said to have considerable memorizing ability of score, but I
guess Gieseking was next to no other contemporaries. An episode:
Concert at evening - a score of a newly composed work was
received - reading it in train - playing the work next evening by
memorizing! It was said that he did not practice too much, which
I can understand enough considering his transcendent technique
and memorizing ability. It is interesting that we can find
mistakes when listening his record with reading scores. Sometimes
they are not mere mistouch but wrong memorizing; it was
legendary, but not '100% perfect'.
As you can imagine his style
from above, his music
can be abbreviated as 'pure, simple and precise style, keen
insight, and full spectrum of nuances'. Since
one of his main purpose of playing was to exactly reconstruct a
score, arbitrarily exaggeration cannot be found. But his tone
color was beyond imagination - audiences and critics unanimously
said his tone color was superior to any other pianist in
subtleness and exquisiteness in Gieseking's peak times(1920~30s)
- really transparent and beautiful. Mozart's lieder(1955 stereo)
is one of the most renowned recordings of Schwarzkopf and him, in
which the piano sound is very round, soft, and individual in
spite that he did not use the right pedal much. It is said that
he never selected the piano maker in concert(very often. Horowitz
conveyed his Steinway piano for any concerts), which is
impossible unless he was totally confident in his technique and
touch.
Dean Elder, who was apprentice of Gieseking,
contributed a chapter named 'Gieseking's Debussy and Ravel
performances' to Joseph Banowetz's very good book The
pianist's guide to pedaling. He said about Gieseking's tone
"Transparent, not
percussive, with very large dynamic range". He told Gieseking to say "I should listen the
beautiful sound from my piano", which I really agree to if
it was said by Gieseking. His Ravel and Debussy will be not the
only way but very refined one in his way really. Dean
Elder explains Gieseking's intention comparing to the records,
which is very precious archive as it is nearly unprecedented that
the intention of such a great virtuoso remains with his record
and explanation. The chapter explains why Gieseking's pedalings
are so long compared to his contemporaris in records.
Gieseking's
recordings are many though considering the era, but as I said
above, unfortunately there are not many that capture his tone
well. Of course EMI should be blamed, contracted with him in tape
era; moreover EMI introduced the stereo technique from 1953~4,
but most of Gieseking's 1955~6 recordings exist only by monaural.
After 1955, Decca and RCA switched to stereo in the most
sessions; EMI is uncomparable to them. Even Elisabeth
Schwarzkopf, who was unquestionably one of the representative
artist of EMI and wife of the leader of EMI's sessions, once
complained about the sluggish behavior of EMI(Walter Legge hated
stereo). More bad thing is irregular sound qualities of his
recordings; Mozart's lied with Schwarzkopf(1955, stereo),
Mendelssohn's Songs without words(1956, monaural), and Schubert's
Impromptus(1955, monaural) each has pretty different sound
quality. Mendelssohn was the latest recording but instable
sound(EMI international's references release has better sound
than Japanese HS-2088 issue, but I can listen a trace of the
problem at the former). These trend are also found at Debussy and
Ravel recordings.
In spite of these problems, his Debussy and
Ravel set are worth while to being listened. Debussy was recorded
in 1953~55, and Ravel in 1954. Both have relatively a bit fast
tempo, and showed his individual sonority well - if we should
imagine it to some extent! Judging from my Japanese old release
of Debussy, it has considerably unsatisfactory sound quality
compared to Casadesus' Debussy by USA Columbia. Ravel set is a
bit better, as far as I can say by listening my Pathe References
LP since the international CD was released only on 2001. These
two sets will show 'the excessiveness' of the most new recordings
available. Philips's 20th century pianist series release(now
unavailable) included Debussy and Ravel recorded in 1930s, and I
want to listen the tone color of his peak time.
He was also famous as a specialist
of Mozart. His complete set of Mozart are often recommended but
many of my musical friends say it is NOT the best at the present
time as far as Pires's(DG) are in catalog, moreover due to sound
quality and 8CDs by med-price! I'd like to recommend Lieder with
Schwarzkopf(1955 stereo). Originally 17 works were recorded but
all of the international issues 16 works without K.518 (I guess
the reason is that K.518 has inferior sound quality to others).
It is one of the best sound quality in his records. However,
two drawbacks of this record are that Schwarzkopf's technique is
excessive(! ^^) and that the works themselves are not so better
than those after Schubert's. Concertos with Rosbaud and Karajan
are Nos. 20,23~25, and quintet with Philharmonia winds
ensemble(perhaps now unavailable). I think concertos are not with
first recommendable priority because there are many recordings
with good sound and performance by others.
The three composers are worth while to being
recommended af first. I have heard 5 sonatas of Beethoven, but
they are not universal in the point of tempo(too fast!). Other
sonatas by radio recordings were released by Tahra, including 27
works. Concerto Nos. 4 and 5 did two times at EMI studio(with
Karajan monaural and Galliera stereo), and wartime stereo
recording with Rother by German tape technique released by Music
& Arts. Other composer's works are more eminent than
Beethoven. Mendelssohn's Song without words and Grieg's Lyric
pieces (though sound quality is problematic) are one of the
best seller, released by References series and now available.
With Karajan and Philharmonia, Schumann, Grieg, and Franck's work
were left. Schubert's Impromptus is very good. Moment
musicaux, 3 pieces, Brahms' pieces, and Schumann's Carnaval
and Kinderscenen was recorded, but most of them are not
available by international version(available only by Japanese). 
When I am listening Gieseking's record, it reminds me of a sentence in the Leimer's book. "When I hear my student playing, I think he(or she) feels same to me about the work." Leimer's method of teaching is very modern and rational even from the present viewpoint, but I loathe such a loss of the individuality in music. How different he was from Leschetizky - all of his students had developed personalized different styles - and Neuhaus, whose style was once called 'generous indifference' to his students(of course from his student's view. Neuhaus was far from 'indifference' to his students. Otherwise, Richter would not appreciate him)! I dare to guess Leimer could not bring up a pianist greater than Gieseking. And, I do want to give a tribute to him who had ability that can not be absorbed but absorb Leimer's method as his style.
4 Gieseking, Philips Great Pianists Series I ; from Amazon
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| 5 at La Scala, Milano, with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf | 5 In practising |
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| 5 Gieseking's hands(1) | 5 Gieseking's hands(2) |
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